Half of the artworks from Hong Kong exhibited at the 2016 Hong Kong-Macau Visual Art Biennale were contributed by faculty and alumni from the School of Creative Media (SCM) at City University of Hong Kong (CityU).

 

CityU’s Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media (ACIM) coordinates the event for the first time.

 

The exhibition was commended by President Xi Jinping, in his congratulatory letter especially for the opening ceremony.

 

Currently at Dunhuang in Gansu province as part of the first Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Culture Expo, the exhibition explores the implications of interactive elements for today’s world through animation, projections and interactive installation.

 

The exhibition, co-organised by the Ministry of Culture of China, Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR government and the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao SAR government, will be held in three places in China, namely Beijing, Dunhuang and Zhengzhou.

 

“The artworks in this exhibition provoke its visitors to think about their experiences and gain ‘new knowledge’. They amalgamate the truth seeking of academic enquiry with the other truths of our dreams and the imagination,” said Professor Jeffrey Shaw, Director of ACIM.

 

161006-2_scm_L.jpg Four of the eight new media artworks displayed in the exhibition were created by members of the SCM. They included Professor Shaw’s interactive installation, Professor Tamas Waliczky’s real-time computing installation, Dr Max Hattler’s 3-D HD animation video, and Mr Ip Yuk-yiu’s electronic game. Also, an immersive virtual reality installation developed by Mr Alan Kwan Tsz-wai, SCM alumnus, was also featured.

 

These multi-media artworks were shortlisted by the Animamix Biennale (2014 and 2016), which was co-hosted by SCM and Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre. These image installation and animation games explored topics such as the relationship between humans and space as well as media and technology.

 

The 2016 Hong Kong-Macau Visual Art Biennale was held at Beijing Minsheng Art Museum from 1 to 9 September. After the Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Culture Expo in early October, it will move on to Henan Art Museum in Zhengzhou for display from 19 to 30 October.